I'm planning on replacing the interior doors in my place and had a couple of questions.

1. Is it okay and fairly easy to just replace the door and not replace the frame? I really don't want to rip out the door casings and have to worry about making sure everything is plum.

2. How big of a difference in noise level blocking is there between hollow and solid doors? I know the solid doors will be better, but they weigh a lot more and cost about 3x as much.

Any other tips on how to make this easier?

 

You can change out just the door, might have to play carpenter to get the hinges and knob on.

If you are just looking for sound deadening you might drill a couple of small holes in the top where they won't be seen and fill it with one of the foam in place products. I haven't done it but have heard of others doing it.

 

I replaced all of the interior doors of my house. The house is from the '60's and had these ugly stained doors:


I replaced them with these six panel doors. They are hollow core, and for only about $30 each I think they really dress up the house. I replaced a total of 9 of them:


And the kitchen door that leads to the basement and backdoor with this door:

 

Also all of the trim was stained oak when I moved in. The trim was old and the stain was turning black in in some places. We are painting all of the trim in the house white. It look really great. So for we have the living room, kitchen, hall and 1 of 2 bathrooms completed. Still have to do all 3 bedrooms, another bathroom and a back hall.

Replacing the doors wasn't to hard. I did them all myself with pretty basic tools. On a scale of 1 to 5 for difficulty I'd give them a 3.

 

If the hinges line up, then it will be a breeze. If not, personally, I will replace the door w/Pre-Hanged doord. Or call a carpenter.

If you worry about noise, then buy those polyurethene filled doors, they are better than the standard solid core doors. I think the manufacturer is Jeld Wen--Pro Core quiet door. There is a huge difference when I replaced the bathroom door.

http://www.jeld-wen.com/

 

I measured the hinge locations on the old doors and used a wood chisel to cut in the hinge location. The poly filled door is a good idea. On the hollow core, it would not be hard at all to use a hole saw at the top of the door and fill it with insulation and then cap off the hole - no one would ever see the hole because it would be at the top BUT that would probably be more work than it is worth. It also depends on the house for what you want to spend. When I build my house it will get all solid wood doors.